How do you self isolate with children?

[hauntedvagina]

I'm watching the C4 programme currently on regarding what to do when you actually get ill.

The advice seems to be that once you have symptoms, lock yourself away from your family for 7 days. But what do you do if both you and your partner become ill within two days of each other? What are you supposed to do with the children? They can't be left alone and need to be kept in the house for 14 days anyway.

I'm probably missing something glaringly obvious here but it seems that if you have children you just ignore the advice and crack on?

Pretty sure my son has it, doctor agreed, but he's only 4. How do you self isolate from your own child? If we'd figured out earlier that my husband was getting it too he could have done all the care but we didn't realize. Anyway he wanted me not DH, what are you supposed to do when your crying, shivering child begs for a cuddle? Don't know if I'm going to get it or not, surprised I don't have it already tbh.

Well you can't, you have to be there for them! And equally what do you do when you're gasping for breath but have a baby or a toddler who need round the clock from you even when you're sick??

You do it together. As a household.

And equally what do you do when you're gasping for breath but have a baby or a toddler who need round the clock from you even when you're sick??

Gasping for breath? You need to in hospital!!

Exactly what i said today. No one to help with DS if we both come down with it. What are we supposed to do?

@playthestation well this is what I thought, but it seems to go against all the advice I've read about locking yourself away. If one parent's unwell the fair enough, but both? And single parents?

I suppose you just have to accept that you're all going to get it, don't you.

you isolate as a family for 2 weeks. In the unlikely event that both parents were ill & needed hospitalisation at the same time, a friend or social services would have to look after the kids. but 99% of the time, one parent will be well enough to care for the kids.

When you get it (& it’s not ‘if’realistically) the chances are you’ll be fine - unless you both have underlying conditions & even then the odds are in your favour. Also the chances are you’ll catch it from your child not vice versa. Also the chances are your child will be fine. If, and it is statistically unlikely, but you both require hospitalision because you are ‘gasping for breath’ then help will be there.

As is, all you can do is take every measure possible to make sure you don’t get it in the next couple of weeks, because when the system collapses and people die because of the sheer fuckwittery of many people who are too stupid or self-involved to listen to the current advice it’ll be too late if your worst fears are realised. My brother and his wife have it right now, he has a history of chest issues and he’s ok (for now, and I can’t tell you how much I hope that continues to be the case as it plays out), but don’t waste your time worrying, spend it spreading the word and making people understand the reality of their current attitude.

There is a high chance lockdown (real lockdown, to protect us from the stupid) will be announced tomorrow or within days. Then the worst will play out, then things will get easier. Everyone is playing a game of Russian Roulette right now, it’s up to you how many bullets you load in to the barrel. If you can then stay in or minimise your risk, it’s all any of us can do right now.

Dr Sil thinks I have it. We're self isolating as a family. Dh has some symptoms but is now much better. Ds has been fine through and dd has a cough/had a bit of fever but is getting better. Despite feeling horrendous, I'm still doing most of the child care because dh is working from home.

You just manage as best you can.

Hope that you kind of take it in turns to catch it. That’s what happened to me and dh last year (so not Covid).
First I caught it and hid away in the main bedroom. Then dh caught it 5 days later, I was still a bit of a wreck but could just about manage the kids.
If the kids caught the same virus we had they had zero symptoms. It took weeks for us to recover.

I'm a single parent (DCs 4 and 2), no help. I'm waiting to hear if I'm classed as high risk. If I'm not, I'm a key worker so back to work.
I know we will get it and I'm absolutely terrified wondering how I'm going to handle it. We've been isolating and haven't left the house in over a week now.

Unless you are are high risk you crack on like you normally would if you're sick. If you're gasping for breath you need hospital treatment ffs.

How do you cope with Noro virus or the flu? Or after surgery? You just manage because you have to. And at the point you can't manage at all it's because you should be in hospital

As I single parent to a 4 year old I got very ill with pneumonia. Before I ended up in hospital somehow I managed to carry on looking after her because I had to. once she went to bed then I allowed myself to feel ill. It's amazing what you can do when you have too

Eventually I had to go to hospital as I couldn't breathe - friends stepped up and looked after dd. Stupidly I didn't ask for help sooner.